Folger Shakespeare Library.

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1 Folger Shakespeare Library

2 Contents Front Matter From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library Textual Introduction Synopsis Characters in the Play ACT 1 Scene 1 Scene 2 ACT 2 Scene 1 Scene 2 ACT 3 Scene 1 Scene 2 ACT 4 Scene 1 Scene 2 ACT 5 Scene 1

3 From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own. Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of taking up Shakespeare, finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them. The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare s works in the Folger s Elizabethan Theater. I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exist to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire. Michael Witmore Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

4 Textual Introduction By Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby Text, which reproduces a latenineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text. Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby Text was created, for example, it was deemed improper and indecent for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: Abhorred slave,/which any print of goodness wilt not take,/being capable of all ill! I pitied thee ). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero. The editors of the Moby Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: If she in chains of magic were not bound, ), half-square brackets (for example from Henry V: With blood and sword and fire to win your

5 example, from Henry V: With blood and sword and fire to win your right, ), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you? ). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information. Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare s texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

6 Synopsis In A Midsummer Night s Dream, residents of Athens mix with fairies from a local forest, with comic results. In the city, Theseus, Duke of Athens, is to marry Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Bottom the weaver and his friends rehearse in the woods a play they hope to stage for the wedding celebrations. Four young Athenians are in a romantic tangle. Lysander and Demetrius love Hermia; she loves Lysander and her friend Helena loves Demetrius. Hermia s father, Egeus, commands Hermia to marry Demetrius, and Theseus supports the father s right. All four young Athenians end up in the woods, where Robin Goodfellow, who serves the fairy king Oberon, puts flower juice on the eyes of Lysander, and then Demetrius, unintentionally causing both to love Helena. Oberon, who is quarreling with his wife, Titania, uses the flower juice on her eyes. She falls in love with Bottom, who now, thanks to Robin Goodfellow, wears an ass s head. As the lovers sleep, Robin Goodfellow restores Lysander s love for Hermia, so that now each young woman is matched with the man she loves. Oberon disenchants Titania and removes Bottom s ass s head. The two young couples join the royal couple in getting married, and Bottom rejoins his friends to perform the play.

7 Characters in the Play LYSANDER HELENA DEMETRIUS four lovers THESEUS, duke of Athens HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons EGEUS, father to Hermia PHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to Theseus NICK BOTTOM, weaver PETER QUINCE, carpenter FRANCIS FLUTE, bellows-mender TOM SNOUT, tinker SNUG, joiner ROBIN STARVELING, tailor OBERON, king of the Fairies TITANIA, queen of the Fairies ROBIN GOODFELLOW, a puck, or hobgoblin, in Oberon s service A FAIRY, in the service of Titania PEASEBLOSSOM COBWEB MOTE MUSTARDSEED fairies attending upon Titania Lords and Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta Other Fairies in the trains of Titania and Oberon

8 ACT 1 Scene 1 Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, and Philostrate, with others. THESEUS FTLN 0001 Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour FTLN 0002 Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in FTLN 0003 Another moon. But, O, methinks how slow FTLN 0004 This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires FTLN 0005 Like to a stepdame or a dowager 5 FTLN 0006 Long withering out a young man s revenue. FTLN 0007 HIPPOLYTA FTLN 0008 FTLN 0009 FTLN FTLN 0011 FTLN 0012 THESEUS FTLN 0013 FTLN 0014 FTLN FTLN 0016 Four days will quickly steep themselves in night; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a silver bow New -bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities. Go, Philostrate, Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments. Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth. Turn melancholy forth to funerals; The pale companion is not for our pomp. Philostrate exits. Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword And won thy love doing thee injuries, But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling. 7 FTLN 0017 FTLN 0018 FTLN 0019 FTLN

9 9 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 Enter Egeus and his daughter Hermia, and Lysander and Demetrius. FTLN 0021 FTLN 0022 EGEUS Happy be Theseus, our renownèd duke! THESEUS Thanks, good Egeus. What s the news with thee? EGEUS Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia. Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her. Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious duke, This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child. Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes And interchanged love tokens with my child. Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung With feigning voice verses of feigning love And stol n the impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats messengers Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth. With cunning hast thou filched my daughter s heart, Turned her obedience (which is due to me) To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious duke, Be it so she will not here before your Grace Consent to marry with Demetrius, I beg the ancient privilege of Athens: As she is mine, I may dispose of her, Which shall be either to this gentleman Or to her death, according to our law Immediately provided in that case. FTLN 0023 FTLN 0024 FTLN FTLN 0026 FTLN 0027 FTLN 0028 FTLN 0029 FTLN FTLN 0031 FTLN 0032 FTLN 0033 FTLN 0034 FTLN FTLN 0036 FTLN 0037 FTLN 0038 FTLN 0039 FTLN FTLN 0041 FTLN 0042 FTLN 0043 FTLN 0044 FTLN FTLN 0046 FTLN 0047 FTLN 0048 FTLN 0049 THESEUS What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid. To you, your father should be as a god, One that composed your beauties, yea, and one

10 11 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 To whom you are but as a form in wax By him imprinted, and within his power To leave the figure or disfigure it. Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. FTLN FTLN 0051 FTLN 0052 FTLN 0053 FTLN 0054 So is Lysander. FTLN 0055 THESEUS 55 FTLN 0056 But in this kind, wanting your father s voice, FTLN 0057 FTLN 0058 FTLN 0059 THESEUS THESEUS In himself he is, The other must be held the worthier. I would my father looked but with my eyes. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me. I know not by what power I am made bold, Nor how it may concern my modesty In such a presence here to plead my thoughts; But I beseech your Grace that I may know The worst that may befall me in this case If I refuse to wed Demetrius. FTLN FTLN 0061 FTLN 0062 FTLN 0063 FTLN 0064 FTLN FTLN 0066 Either to die the death, or to abjure Forever the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, Know of your youth, examine well your blood, Whether (if you yield not to your father s choice) You can endure the livery of a nun, For aye to be in shady cloister mewed, To live a barren sister all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Thrice-blessèd they that master so their blood To undergo such maiden pilgrimage, But earthlier happy is the rose distilled Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. FTLN 0067 FTLN 0068 FTLN 0069 FTLN FTLN 0071 FTLN 0072 FTLN 0073 FTLN 0074 FTLN FTLN 0076 FTLN 0077 FTLN 0078 FTLN 0079 FTLN

11 13 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 FTLN 0081 FTLN 0082 FTLN 0083 FTLN 0084 So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, Ere I will yield my virgin patent up Unto his lordship whose unwishèd yoke My soul consents not to give sovereignty. THESEUS Take time to pause, and by the next new moon (The sealing day betwixt my love and me For everlasting bond of fellowship), Upon that day either prepare to die For disobedience to your father s will, Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would, Or on Diana s altar to protest For aye austerity and single life. FTLN FTLN 0086 FTLN 0087 FTLN 0088 FTLN 0089 FTLN FTLN 0091 FTLN 0092 FTLN 0093 FTLN 0094 DEMETRIUS Relent, sweet Hermia, and, Lysander, yield Thy crazèd title to my certain right. LYSANDER You have her father s love, Demetrius. Let me have Hermia s. Do you marry him. FTLN FTLN 0096 EGEUS Scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love; And what is mine my love shall render him. And she is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius., to Theseus I am, my lord, as well derived as he, As well possessed. My love is more than his; My fortunes every way as fairly ranked (If not with vantage) as Demetrius ; And (which is more than all these boasts can be) I am beloved of beauteous Hermia. Why should not I then prosecute my right? Demetrius, I ll avouch it to his head, Made love to Nedar s daughter, Helena, And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes, FTLN 0097 FTLN 0098 FTLN 0099 FTLN LYSANDER FTLN 0101 FTLN 0102 FTLN 0103 FTLN 0104 FTLN FTLN 0106 FTLN 0107 FTLN 0108 FTLN 0109 FTLN

12 15 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 FTLN 0111 FTLN 0112 Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, Upon this spotted and inconstant man. THESEUS I must confess that I have heard so much, And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof; But, being overfull of self-affairs, My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come, And come, Egeus; you shall go with me. I have some private schooling for you both. For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself To fit your fancies to your father s will, Or else the law of Athens yields you up (Which by no means we may extenuate) To death or to a vow of single life. Come, my Hippolyta. What cheer, my love? Demetrius and Egeus, go along. I must employ you in some business Against our nuptial, and confer with you Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. FTLN 0113 FTLN 0114 FTLN FTLN 0116 FTLN 0117 FTLN 0118 FTLN 0119 FTLN FTLN 0121 FTLN 0122 FTLN 0123 FTLN 0124 FTLN FTLN 0126 FTLN 0127 FTLN 0128 FTLN 0129 EGEUS With duty and desire we follow you. All but Hermia and Lysander exit. LYSANDER How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale? How chance the roses there do fade so fast? FTLN FTLN 0131 FTLN 0132 FTLN 0133 Belike for want of rain, which I could well Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes. LYSANDER Ay me! For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. But either it was different in blood FTLN 0134 FTLN FTLN 0136 FTLN 0137 FTLN 0138 FTLN 0139 O cross! Too high to be enthralled to low. LYSANDER Or else misgraffèd in respect of years

13 17 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 FTLN FTLN 0141 FTLN 0142 O spite! Too old to be engaged to young. LYSANDER Or else it stood upon the choice of friends O hell, to choose love by another s eyes! LYSANDER Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Making it momentany as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And, ere a man hath power to say Behold! The jaws of darkness do devour it up. So quick bright things come to confusion. FTLN 0143 FTLN 0144 FTLN FTLN 0146 FTLN 0147 FTLN 0148 FTLN 0149 FTLN FTLN 0151 If then true lovers have been ever crossed, It stands as an edict in destiny. Then let us teach our trial patience Because it is a customary cross, As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, Wishes and tears, poor fancy s followers. FTLN 0152 FTLN 0153 FTLN 0154 FTLN FTLN 0156 FTLN 0157 LYSANDER A good persuasion. Therefore, hear me, Hermia: I have a widow aunt, a dowager Of great revenue, and she hath no child. From Athens is her house remote seven leagues, And she respects me as her only son. There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee; And to that place the sharp Athenian law Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me, then Steal forth thy father s house tomorrow night, And in the wood a league without the town (Where I did meet thee once with Helena To do observance to a morn of May), There will I stay for thee. FTLN 0158 FTLN 0159 FTLN FTLN 0161 FTLN 0162 FTLN 0163 FTLN 0164 FTLN FTLN 0166 FTLN 0167 FTLN 0168 FTLN 0169 FTLN

14 19 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 My good Lysander, I swear to thee by Cupid s strongest bow, By his best arrow with the golden head, By the simplicity of Venus doves, By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, And by that fire which burned the Carthage queen When the false Trojan under sail was seen, By all the vows that ever men have broke (In number more than ever women spoke), In that same place thou hast appointed me, Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee. FTLN 0171 FTLN 0172 FTLN 0173 FTLN 0174 FTLN FTLN 0176 FTLN 0177 FTLN 0178 FTLN 0179 FTLN FTLN 0181 FTLN 0182 LYSANDER Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena. Enter Helena. FTLN 0183 Godspeed, fair Helena. Whither away? HELENA FTLN 0184 FTLN FTLN 0186 FTLN 0187 FTLN 0188 FTLN 0189 FTLN FTLN 0191 FTLN 0192 FTLN 0193 FTLN 0194 FTLN FTLN 0196 FTLN 0197 FTLN 0198 Call you me fair? That fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair! Your eyes are lodestars and your tongue s sweet air More tunable than lark to shepherd s ear When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. Sickness is catching. O, were favor so! Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go. My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye; My tongue should catch your tongue s sweet melody. Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, The rest I d give to be to you translated. O, teach me how you look and with what art You sway the motion of Demetrius heart! I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. HELENA O, that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! FTLN 0199 FTLN

15 21 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 FTLN 0201 FTLN 0202 FTLN 0203 FTLN 0204 I give him curses, yet he gives me love. HELENA O, that my prayers could such affection move! The more I hate, the more he follows me. HELENA The more I love, the more he hateth me. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. FTLN FTLN 0206 HELENA None but your beauty. Would that fault were mine! Take comfort: he no more shall see my face. Lysander and myself will fly this place. Before the time I did Lysander see Seemed Athens as a paradise to me. O, then, what graces in my love do dwell That he hath turned a heaven unto a hell! FTLN 0207 FTLN 0208 FTLN 0209 FTLN FTLN 0211 FTLN 0212 LYSANDER Helen, to you our minds we will unfold. Tomorrow night when Phoebe doth behold Her silver visage in the wat ry glass, Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass (A time that lovers flights doth still conceal), Through Athens gates have we devised to steal. FTLN 0213 FTLN 0214 FTLN FTLN 0216 FTLN 0217 FTLN 0218 And in the wood where often you and I Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie, Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, There my Lysander and myself shall meet, And thence from Athens turn away our eyes To seek new friends and stranger companies. Farewell, sweet playfellow. Pray thou for us, And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius. FTLN 0219 FTLN FTLN 0221 FTLN 0222 FTLN 0223 FTLN 0224 FTLN FTLN 0226

16 23 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 1 FTLN 0227 FTLN 0228 Keep word, Lysander. We must starve our sight From lovers food till morrow deep midnight. LYSANDER I will, my Hermia. Helena, adieu. As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! HELENA How happy some o er other some can be! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so. He will not know what all but he do know. And, as he errs, doting on Hermia s eyes, So I, admiring of his qualities. Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath Love s mind of any judgment taste. Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste. And therefore is Love said to be a child Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, So the boy Love is perjured everywhere. For, ere Demetrius looked on Hermia s eyne, He hailed down oaths that he was only mine; And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, So he dissolved, and show rs of oaths did melt. I will go tell him of fair Hermia s flight. Then to the wood will he tomorrow night Pursue her. And, for this intelligence If I have thanks, it is a dear expense. But herein mean I to enrich my pain, To have his sight thither and back again. Hermia exits. FTLN 0229 FTLN FTLN 0231 Lysander exits. FTLN 0232 FTLN 0233 FTLN 0234 FTLN FTLN 0236 FTLN 0237 FTLN 0238 FTLN 0239 FTLN FTLN 0241 FTLN 0242 FTLN 0243 FTLN 0244 FTLN FTLN 0246 FTLN 0247 FTLN 0248 FTLN 0249 FTLN FTLN 0251 FTLN 0252 FTLN 0253 FTLN 0254 FTLN FTLN 0256 FTLN 0257 She exits.

17 25 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 2 FTLN 0258 FTLN 0259 FTLN 0260 Scene 2 Enter Quince the carpenter, and Snug the joiner, and Bottom the weaver, and Flute the bellows-mender, and Snout the tinker, and Starveling the tailor. QUINCE BOTTOM Is all our company here? You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip. Here is the scroll of every man s name which FTLN 0261 FTLN 0262 QUINCE is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our 5 FTLN 0263 interlude before the Duke and the Duchess on his FTLN 0264 wedding day at night. FTLN 0265 BOTTOM First, good Peter Quince, say what the play FTLN 0266 treats on, then read the names of the actors, and so FTLN 0267 grow to a point. 10 FTLN 0268 QUINCE Marry, our play is The most lamentable FTLN 0269 comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and FTLN 0270 Thisbe. FTLN 0271 BOTTOM A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a FTLN 0272 merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your 15 FTLN 0273 actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves. FTLN 0274 FTLN 0275 QUINCE BOTTOM Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver. Ready. Name what part I am for, and FTLN 0276 proceed. FTLN 0277 FTLN 0278 FTLN 0279 FTLN 0280 QUINCE BOTTOM QUINCE BOTTOM You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. What is Pyramus a lover or a tyrant? A lover that kills himself most gallant for love. That will ask some tears in the true performing 20 FTLN 0281 of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their FTLN 0282 eyes. I will move storms; I will condole in some 25 FTLN 0283 FTLN 0284 FTLN 0285 measure. To the rest. Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split: The raging rocks And shivering shocks Shall break the locks FTLN 0286 FTLN FTLN 0288

18 27 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 2 Of prison gates. And Phibbus car Shall shine from far And make and mar The foolish Fates. FTLN 0289 FTLN 0290 FTLN 0291 FTLN FTLN 0293 FTLN 0294 FTLN 0295 FTLN 0296 This was lofty. Now name the rest of the players. This is Ercles vein, a tyrant s vein. A lover is more condoling. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. FTLN 0297 QUINCE 40 FTLN 0298 FTLN 0299 FTLN 0300 FTLN 0301 FTLN 0302 FLUTE QUINCE FLUTE QUINCE FLUTE Here, Peter Quince. Flute, you must take Thisbe on you. What is Thisbe a wand ring knight? It is the lady that Pyramus must love. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman. I have a 45 FTLN 0303 beard coming. FTLN 0304 QUINCE That s all one. You shall play it in a mask, and FTLN 0305 you may speak as small as you will. FTLN 0306 BOTTOM An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. FTLN 0307 I ll speak in a monstrous little voice: Thisne, 50 FTLN 0308 Thisne! Ah Pyramus, my lover dear! Thy Thisbe FTLN 0309 dear and lady dear! FTLN 0310 QUINCE No, no, you must play Pyramus and, Flute, FTLN 0311 you Thisbe. FTLN 0312 FTLN 0313 BOTTOM QUINCE Well, proceed. Robin Starveling, the tailor. 55 FTLN 0314 STARVELING Here, Peter Quince. FTLN 0315 QUINCE Robin Starveling, you must play Thisbe s FTLN 0316 mother. Tom Snout, the tinker. FTLN 0317 FTLN 0318 SNOUT QUINCE Here, Peter Quince. You, Pyramus father. Myself, Thisbe s 60 FTLN 0319 father. Snug the joiner, you the lion s part. FTLN 0320 And I hope here is a play fitted. FTLN 0321 SNUG Have you the lion s part written? Pray you, if it FTLN 0322 be, give it me, for I am slow of study. 65 FTLN 0323 QUINCE You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but FTLN 0324 roaring.

19 29 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 2 BOTTOM Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do any man s heart good to hear me. I will roar that I will make the Duke say Let him roar again. Let him roar again! QUINCE An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the Duchess and the ladies that they would shriek, and that were enough to hang us all. That would hang us, every mother s son. FTLN 0325 FTLN 0326 FTLN FTLN 0328 FTLN 0329 FTLN 0330 FTLN 0331 FTLN 0332 ALL 75 FTLN 0333 BOTTOM I grant you, friends, if you should fright the FTLN 0334 ladies out of their wits, they would have no more FTLN 0335 discretion but to hang us. But I will aggravate my FTLN 0336 voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking FTLN 0337 dove. I will roar you an twere any nightingale. 80 FTLN 0338 QUINCE You can play no part but Pyramus, for Pyramus FTLN 0339 is a sweet-faced man, a proper man as one FTLN 0340 shall see in a summer s day, a most lovely gentlemanlike FTLN 0341 man. Therefore you must needs play FTLN 0342 Pyramus. 85 FTLN 0343 BOTTOM Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I FTLN 0344 best to play it in? FTLN 0345 FTLN 0346 QUINCE BOTTOM Why, what you will. I will discharge it in either your straw-color FTLN 0347 beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain 90 FTLN 0348 beard, or your French-crown-color beard, FTLN 0349 your perfit yellow. FTLN 0350 QUINCE Some of your French crowns have no hair at FTLN 0351 all, and then you will play barefaced. But, masters, FTLN 0352 here are your parts, giving out the parts, and I am 95 FTLN 0353 to entreat you, request you, and desire you to con FTLN 0354 them by tomorrow night and meet me in the palace FTLN 0355 wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight. There FTLN 0356 will we rehearse, for if we meet in the city, we shall FTLN FTLN 0358 FTLN 0359 FTLN 0360 BOTTOM be dogged with company and our devices known. In the meantime I will draw a bill of properties such as our play wants. I pray you fail me not. We will meet, and there we may rehearse

20 31 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 1. SC. 2 most obscenely and courageously. Take pains. Be perfit. Adieu. At the Duke s Oak we meet. Enough. Hold, or cut bowstrings. FTLN 0361 FTLN FTLN 0363 QUINCE FTLN 0364 BOTTOM They exit.

21 ACT 2 Scene 1 Enter a Fairy at one door and Robin Goodfellow at another. FTLN 0365 ROBIN How now, spirit? Whither wander you? FAIRY Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire; I do wander everywhere, Swifter than the moon s sphere. And I serve the Fairy Queen, To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favors; In those freckles live their savors. I must go seek some dewdrops here And hang a pearl in every cowslip s ear. Farewell, thou lob of spirits. I ll be gone. Our queen and all her elves come here anon. FTLN 0366 FTLN 0367 FTLN 0368 FTLN FTLN 0370 FTLN 0371 FTLN 0372 FTLN 0373 FTLN FTLN 0375 FTLN 0376 FTLN 0377 FTLN 0378 FTLN FTLN 0380 FTLN 0381 FTLN 0382 FTLN 0383 ROBIN The King doth keep his revels here tonight. Take heed the Queen come not within his sight, 35

22 37 A Midsummer Night s Dream ACT 2. SC. 1 For Oberon is passing fell and wrath Because that she, as her attendant, hath A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king; She never had so sweet a changeling. And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild. But she perforce withholds the lovèd boy, Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy. And now they never meet in grove or green, By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen, But they do square, that all their elves for fear Creep into acorn cups and hide them there. FTLN FTLN 0385 FTLN 0386 FTLN 0387 FTLN 0388 FTLN FTLN 0390 FTLN 0391 FTLN 0392 FTLN 0393 FTLN FTLN 0395 FTLN 0396 FAIRY Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite Called Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he That frights the maidens of the villagery, Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern And bootless make the breathless huswife churn, And sometime make the drink to bear no barm, Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck. Are not you he? Thou speakest aright. FTLN 0397 FTLN 0398 FTLN FTLN 0400 FTLN 0401 FTLN 0402 FTLN 0403 FTLN FTLN 0405 FTLN 0406 FTLN 0407 FTLN 0408 ROBIN FTLN 0409 I am that merry wanderer of the night. 45 FTLN 0410 I jest to Oberon and make him smile FTLN 0411 When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, FTLN 0412 Neighing in likeness of a filly foal. FTLN 0413 And sometime lurk I in a gossip s bowl FTLN 0414 In very likeness of a roasted crab, 50 FTLN 0415 FTLN 0416 FTLN 0417 FTLN 0418 And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;